In a move that caught Sydney’s sandwich chasers by surprise, the highly popular All Purpose Bakery has just opened the doors to A.P Bread and Wine in Darlinghurst.

A.P’s chief baker, Dougal Muffet, says the new 80-seat venue will have a strong breakfast offering and “morph into a casual bistro at lunch”. He has an early recommendation from the lunchtime menu too, where “leftover bread pasta” is paired with zucchini and anchovy, and a “not your mum’s” rissole sandwich has made the cut.

“I think my favourite is the mackerel sandwich,” the baker says. Diners can expect to encounter their blue mackerel encased in thick-cut Japanese-style white bread and sharpened with green zhug sauce.

In an A.P first, a gelato machine will pump out flavours including strawberry and umeboshi (pickled Japanese plums). The bakery’s pastry staples will be on hand, including a sugar plum brioche and whisky canele, while the breakfast offering is headlined by a gruyere and asiago cheese “breakfast pizza”, and “drowned eggs” in chicken broth with a toasted baguette.

A.P Bread and Wine’s Burton Street site comes with food pedigree – it was once the home of the Commons Local Eating House. The sandstone cottage and its two garden courtyards have been revamped by architect Anthony Gill, also responsible for the design at chef Mat Lindsay’s Ester and Poly restaurants (Lindsay is also an A.P co-owner).

There’s a recycled paper acoustic ceiling (similar to Poly’s) to help soften noise, smart red table tops and leather banquettes. The space was originally slated to be A.P’s first proper venue, but treading carefully with the building’s heritage listing pushed it back in the group’s rollout.

Meanwhile, with a drinks list of wine, pre-batched cocktails and Japanese digestives, Muffet says dinner-time trade is on the horizon.

Speaking to Good Food, he also confirmed the group’s rumoured plan to add a new mega location to its portfolio, joining Bread and Wine plus A.P’s existing locations in Newtown, Martin Place, and the rooftop of Surry Hills’ Paramount House Hotel.

The next All Purpose venue will be housed in a handsome corner building in Fitzroy Street, Marrickville, where restaurant supplier Two Providores traded before its relocation.

The sprawling Marrickville site “has everything we want”, says Muffet, plus potential as a headquarters, but it will take time to activate.

“None of us has focused on growth; every step has come organically,” he says.

Breakfast and lunch daily

32 Burton Street, Darlinghurst; apbakery.com.au